Wednesday, November 5, 2014

#CoverReveal: GEMINI RISING II: The Light and the Flame, by Louann Carroll, #CMP

About the Book:

Ripped from her deathbed, Noah transports Kate to the Olam Yetzirah, the dimension where universes form. They seek the advice of the archangel, Michael, in how best to get back to Earth and their children. Kate’s son and their newborn daughter, Lucia, the one spoken of in the prophecy Gemini Rising, await their return.

Trouble arises and concern ripples through the Olam. Kate is unable to make the transition from human to bond mate and her dreams of returning to Earth with Noah are crushed. Uriel will become Kate’s mentor while Noah is dispatched to Naresh, his home planet and to his people to whom the Light no longer speaks

Will Kate become the bond mate she is meant to be? Will Noah find welcome with his people or will they despise him for taking the Light from their souls. Most important of all, will the prophecy of Lucia be fulfilled, or will Belial, demon of Hades, murder her in a fit of jealous rage.

ExcerptTrue love keeps no track of wrongdoing.

Memory flooding back, Belial lay with Saddash on the banks of the river, wishing he could make his mind a blank for all eternity. After a time, listening to the water’s ebb and flow, his anxiety eased. While in the river, Saddash had taken him into her arms. Together they melded, but as usual, the joining was not complete. Since Saddash was not his bond mate the ritual left him empty, and instead of building flame the act brought him sorrow even as it provided physical relief. A part of him would always be with Sheren no matter where the Light had taken her.

“You think of that woman.” Saddash’s eyes were spiteful as she brushed back a lock of blue-black hair.

Her burnished body gleamed in the misty twilight, catching rays from the setting shoshrana sun above. Starlight glanced off the contours of her skin, adding to her lustrous beauty.

He answered her, “I do.”

“Why did you let her go?”

“It was not of my choosing.”

Saddash circled one nipple with a nail. “Am I not as good as her?”

“You are better.”

A pleased expression crossed her face and he wondered that she could not detect his lie. She should have. He had given her the power to do so, but it was always this way. Incomplete and alone he faced the world, his bond mate forever separated from his side, her clone unable or unwilling to share his life completely.

The day of his bond mate’s betrayal had dawned with each of them entwined within the other’s arms. He had a surprise for her, something to celebrate their years together. A golden dragon sculpted by the finest artist in the universe. He couldn’t wait to see her face. He thought a moment, thinking of when he’d first laid eyes on her, the raven-haired beauty of Beriah.

He had stolen Sheren from the world of creation. There, only souls of the highest luminosity could live and Sheren was the loveliest. Fair of face, dark of hair and eye, lithe of body, her arms had held him close, providing comfort to one of the Light’s rejected.

“Belial?”

“Quiet, Saddash.” He gazed across the river, his memory fading into the past.

On the day of Sheren’s disloyalty, they had been abed for hours, each of them enjoying the other in a dance of lovemaking that would make the Light blush—until she said the unthinkable.

“I want another child.”

“You what?” Her request had shaken him to the core, thinking this subject had been put to rest.

Taking a sip of memosky, he searched for the right words to answer her demand. The thought of a child was anathema. No one would come between him and his bond mate, least of all a newly created soul.

“A child, Belial. I want—no I need a child.”

“Whatever for? You can create one if you will. Just think of one by Hades!”

Her eyes burned bright with tears. “Remember Haon? He came from my loins and did us both proud. Until you murdered him and our grandchild.” She sat up, her eyes bright with tears. “You and that prophecy. You fear it, don’t you. You really believe a child will take you from your rightful place in the universe.”

“Why now?” He rose from bed, dragging the sheet across the floor. “We have everything! Why must you have a child?” He would never forget her answer.

“The Light told me to ask.”

Fury exploding within, he morphed into demon-hood and staggered toward her, one hand ready to rip the soul from her body. “How dare you consult that insipient Being, that, that…!”

Sheren did not cringe. She had never been afraid of him and that had won his respect. She said again,
“I want a child.”

Towering over her, his hand bent into a reptilian claw, he cried, “I’ll see you dead first.”

Instead of meeting his anger with fear she smiled, the light from her inner being shining on her face.

He stood down, instantly morphing into personhood, the pain encompassing his soul not easily forgiven. He hissed, “I cannot believe you would ask such a thing.”

Ebony eyes looked back, the agony of her request filling him, letting him know that once again he would accede to her wishes.

She finished, “Still, I want a child.”

About the Author:

Louann Carroll is a Native Californian living in the Sierra Nevada foothills with her husband, Dennis.

Mother to three children, she is an avid rock, fossil, and gem hunter who enjoys sharing her finds with family and friends. She is a student of alternative religion, archaeology, anthropology, and paleontology.

After leaving her position as C.E.O. in the Bay Area, she has pursued her writing career with much success. Winner of the 2010 Crescent Moon Press award for best novel, she has added numerous titles to her resume. She is the author of the Gemini series, A Shadow of Time, a paranormal romance, Journeys, The Adventure of Leaf, and other children's stories.

You can reach her at:

Twitter @LouannCarrollhttps://www.facebook.com/AuthorLouann...E-mail carroll.louann@yahoo.comGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1426100.Louann_Carroll Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Louann-Carroll/e/B001K838AK/ref=ntt_dp_epwb________________________________________And if you really want to know Louann...1. I have Crohn's disease but it does not define me. 2. Chocolate defines me, but because of Crohn's I can rarely eat it. Although I do blog about it often enough. Wishful thinking, I guess.3. I have three kids, but they are grown, thank heavens. I could NOT do it over again.4. I have seven grandchildren but I'm still very young. Just ask them.5. I married my childhood sweetheart and after forty-four years he is still my sweetheart, but don't tell him, he has a big enough head already. 6. My three dogs, Chelsea, Bella, and Aggie sleep in our bed. I just can't see kicking them out at their age. 7. Moving to the Sierra Nevada foothills was the best decision I ever made. Aside from marrying my husband.

5 Star Review for Gemini Rising IReviewer: Merrylee from Two Lips Reviews (Reviewers Choice Award AND Recommended Read)The last thing Kathryn, children’s book author turned magazine and short story writer, wanted was to move away from her beloved San Francisco. Nevertheless, she and her 13-year-old son Ryan have little choice in the matter when her husband, famous archeologist Jason Kelly, receives a grant to excavate a newly discovered Anasazi village in the Arizona desert. Missing the salt air and misty mornings of the Bay area, Kate hates the dusty heat of Arizona. Morose over the move, she’s resentful when Jason chooses to spend more time at the dig than at home in Sedona.

After the comet Eros appears overhead, clouding the skies with red dust, Kate begins having strange, frightening nightmares. Then a gigantic UFO appears in the night sky and the repeating message — PREPARE FOR THE CROSSING — mysteriously appears on her computer screen. When she waves to a Native American woman at the dig, a testy Jason tells her that she must be seeing things because there are no women associated with the dig. What most upsets her, however, is the pure sexual arousal she experiences when Jason introduces her to Noah, a young dig worker just out of university.

Similarly attracted to Kate, Noah is more than the sexy green-eyed hunk he appears to be. A thousand years old, he’s been assigned to help Kate and Ryan through the Crossing of Nibiru, the planet humanity has mistaken for a comet. He commands the Nektosha, one of the Galactic Counsel spaceships preparing to rescue the Chosen — the animals and humans picked to reseed Earth following the destruction wrought by Nibiru’s passing. Unbeknownst to Kate, she has been chosen to record the crumbling of Earth’s latest and most advanced civilization. Ryan as well has a calling. Gifted by the aliens with the ability to heal, he will be charged with saving the handful of people who survive the violent earthquakes, floods and shifting of poles on the Earth’s surface.

Once Noah announces his true purpose on Earth, Jason refuses to believe in either aliens or the catastrophic end of time. When Noah removes Kate and Ryan to the safety of his ship, Jason’s inability to believe leaves him stranded on earth, launching him on a separate journey that will change not only his narrow outlook of the universe, but the man he grew up to become. Meanwhile, Kate and Noah discover a love so deep that humanity is reborn through their bond, newer and better than it was before. But what will it mean to an Earth recovering from destruction in an intergalactic age?

Louann Carroll’s fundamental idea for Gemini Rising came to her in a dream, but the plot is loosely based on actual archeological discoveries relating to Sumerian history and the famous Mayan Calendar. Nibiru actually exists! According to a small group of current conspiracy theorists, the rogue tenth planet will pass through our solar system on its 3,600-year orbit around the sun, dooming Earth to cataclysmic destruction, sometime in December 2012. They contend that NASA is currently tracking Nibiru, but that the information is being kept from the public as part of a worldwide conspiracy. We'll see...

Packed with prophesy, pain and passion; with love, devastation and renewal, Gemini Rising is the memorable introduction to what promises to be an epic intergalactic/interdimensional series that will rock sci-fi readers to the core. This first book is set in the near future in the United Socialist States. America is plagued with many of the consequences that today’s conservatives believe we will face if our government continues down its current liberal path. Yet, as frightening as this future world becomes, it didn’t once occur to me to put this book down. Simply put, it's one of the most amazing, yet unsettling books I’ve ever read. For Ms. Carroll, it’s a crowning achievement, so masterfully written it can do nothing but win every award for which it’s certain to be nominated.

The mystical love story of Noah and Kate is both sweet and awe-inspiring. It drew so many tears from me in spots that I had to stop reading to mop up the flood. Otherwise, I was completely lost in this book. The ceiling could have fallen in on me and I wouldn’t have noticed. Kate, despite all her initial wailing, resentfulness and depression over each and every danger, adversity and harsh condition she had to face, always rises to the occasion. She is probably a more authentic heroine than we sometimes see in romance novels. Accustomed to Jason’s overbearing and demeaning attitude toward her, she’s a typical woman forced to face adversities so monumental that she’s ill equipped to handle them. Noah, on the other hand, is a complete rock, solid and enduring in his devotion to Kate and to his mission to save humanity.

Gemini Rising is a truly superb book, arguably the best futuristic novel to come down the pike in quite sometime. Don't miss it. Its anticlimactic ending will leave you with what Ms. Carroll calls a “haunting echo” of what is to come sometime in 2013 with the release of The Light and the Flame, the first of several highly anticipated sequels.

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Welcome!

I'm an author, editor, magazine columnist, wife, and mother to three kids and two big dogs... not necessarily in that same order each day. I try to write every day and read a book a week, but life often gets in the way.

I write romance and adventure for young adults and the young at heart, and living next to the Atlantic Ocean influences everything I write...